For one of my ad categories called “Boats”, I created a custom form layout and then added my two custom fields.  I then reordered the fields and made them mandatory all within a matter of seconds. I also demonstrate how the new form validation works for both fields and image uploads.

In step two of the new ad submission form you’ll see a summary of the ad as well as a breakdown of how much it will cost. There is also a “terms of use” text box that you can easily modify to your needs. Once the ad has been submitted, you automatically get redirected to PayPal to make your payment. After payment has been made, you’ll be sent back to ClassiPress to see your new ad published.

In addition on the new ClassiPress dashboard, the developer’s edition (professional edition) will show you how much money you’ve made thus far. Watch the demo below to see it all in action.

Well, as you can read from my forum response, there are several reasons but that won’t stop us from working hard on getting it completed and released as soon as we possibly can.

If you haven’t already purchased ClassiPress and are holding out until 3.0, I recommend you get in now while the prices are still low. They will increase once 3.0 comes out so even if you don’t want to install 2.9.3, you can lock in your price and just wait for the free 3.0 update. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In the meantime, I wanted to treat you to a sneek peek at what the new ClassiPress will look like. This is a first hand look of never before seen screen shots. There will be 5 different color variations so don’t be upset if you don’t like this shade of blue.

The inner pages are still being finalized but i will post them as soon as they are finished and approved. When will ClassiPress 3.0 be available? Read the forum post link included above to find out the details.

Any feedback of this design is of course welcome but it’s already pretty much locked and loaded at this point.

I felt it was important to fix several bugs in the 2.9 branch before taking ClassiPress to 3.0. When I first started working on 2.9.3 is was supposed to have only been a small release — mainly adding support for new PayPal currencies, fixing a mail function bug, and improving the discovery of the ad thumbnail image path. Well, I ended up spending many long days cleaning up and stabilizing the product which was much needed.

So should I upgrade or not?

That’s the question most of you existing customers will ask. To contradict myself from the previous blog post, “ClassiPress v2.9.3 Coming Soon“, I recommend all ClassiPress customers upgrade to v2.9.3 because of the fixes and small security issue. If you’ve done lots of customization and don’t want to redo them all after the upgrade, I recommend manually making the upgrade by looking at the changelog.txt included with the update.

The two most important changes to make would be upgrading your fancybox script to 1.2.6+ (which will fix the IE8 bug for displaying images), and the security fix to remove ad owners jumbled email address from hidden field.

The good news for those using ClassiPress in another language, you can upgrade and use your existing .po without a hitch. I was very careful when making all the fixes not to disturb the translation text so I don’t see any issues there.

In order to download the latest version, just use your original E-Junkie download link. It will always contain the latest version. If you lost or deleted your email (shame on you), then follow the instructions under the ClassiPress FAQ.

Should I hold out for 3.0 and forget this update?

Good question and the answer can vary. It really comes down to how much work you’ve already put into customizing your theme. If you haven’t done any mods, then the upgrade is an easy process. No changes required and you just overwrite your existing /themes/classipress directory. On the other hand, if you’ve modified the ClassiPress code a ton and plan on using 3.0, it might not be worth it.

Since 3.0 will be completely rewritten, you’ll have some work ahead of you and you won’t want to do it twice. Some customers might decide to just stay on v2.9+ so they don’t have to deal with the hassle. There will be some manual migration work and if you’ve got a fairly large site, it will be a bear to do.

So here’s the official list of all fixes and changes packed into 2.9.3.

2.9.3 Fixes:

• Changed mail function to wp_mail on “report ad” and “send message” features. Resolves intl character issue and problems sending email on some hosts.
• Added support to better detect where your ad thumbnail images are located. Fixes blank thumbnails on ads for some.
• Updated plugins to the latest versions.
• Added missing cp translation tag to the word “ago” and a couple mentions of “categories”.
• Ad image zoom support for IE8 which fixes IE8 “not implemented” JS error.
• Fixed backslash bug on form fields when ad is submitted without completing all required fields.
• Security fix to remove ad owners jumbled email address from hidden field on contact ad owner sidebar form.
• Fixed IE alignment issue on contact ad owner captcha field.
• Fixed IE 6&7 peekaboo css div bug on login and other pages. Basically those pages had content disappear unless you mouse over it.
• Fixed IE hover issue now showing hand icon on home page ads.
• Cleaned up several non-compliant tags to wc3 standards.
• Widened pagination links div so it no longer wraps.
• Removed unused set_time_limit function which sometimes generated “Warning: set_time_limit() has been disabled for security reasons”.
• Fixed home page date value wrapping when format is long like November 20, 2009.
• Added new function to check for http:// in new ad URL field submission. If it’s missing, automatically add it.

2.9.3 Changes:

• Added PayPal support for five new currencies (Brazilian Real, Malaysian Ringgits, Philippine Pesos, Taiwan New Dollars, and Thai Baht).
• Moved favicon admin image to local image folder.
• Added a CP version meta tag.
• Sticky ads now work on category pages. This was fixed with the WordPress 2.9 release.

This will most likely be the final release for 2.9 unless there are some critical fixes that need to be done. Now it’s full steam ahead with development on 3.0. The holidays have (and will) make it difficult to spend a lot of time on 3.0 which is why I’m setting an end of January release date.

If your primary language is English, USD as your currency, and your thumbnail images are working fine, then you don’t need to bother with the upgrade unless you really want to.

When I started working on 2.9.3 last week, I wanted to make some other updates but I decided it was best to hold off. Once you add new code, it changes the position of all the text that needs to be translated which results in .po language files getting all messed up. I didn’t want to create more work for those who use ClassiPress in another language besides English and with 3.0 due out in January, it just wasn’t worth the hassle.

The good news is this release will not affect the translation files (.po) so you won’t need to re-edit them. The files that were edited either had no text to translate or were just altered without pushing the rest of the code down the page. The only thing you will notice is that five new PayPal currencies were added at the end of the drop down list instead of alphabetically listing them. This was to prevent any existing language files from having to be updated. They will be alphabetized in 3.0.

Here are some of the changes to expect from this small release

• Added a path sniffer feature to discover uploads image directory. This helps resolve an issue for some where the thumbnail images are blank on the home and single pages.
• Changed from using php mail to wp_mail on “report ad” and “send message” features. This resolves an intl character issue and problems sending email on some hosts.
• Added PayPal support for five new currencies which include the Brazilian Real, Malaysian Ringgits, Philippine Pesos, Taiwan New Dollars, and Thai Baht.
• Updated all plugins to the latest versions.

Again, if you are an English speaking customer selling ads in USD and don’t have any issues with your image thumbnails, you don’t need to take any action. If you do however, feel compelled to upgrade, you can always use your original e-junkie download link to get the latest version.

I still need to finish up on some testing but plan on seeing 2.9.3 out no later than this Sunday 12/20/09.

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